Tag Archives: Republinuts

When I was 19, I used to work for a company owned by a dude who was a Jehova’s Witness. Among his clients back in the early 90s were a major call center run by the state Republicans and one call center owned by a certain Bush consultant we all love to hate and blame. Now, I’m not sure the CEO voted or not as he was very conservative when it came to his religion. But he was a huge supporter of Republicans in one way or another. (I still remember the scowl on his face the day Ann Richards had her inaugural parade right outside 111 Congress and I had to control my huge smile as I delivered the company mail.)

During the Christmas holidays, he wouldn’t allow employees to have Christmas stuff decorating their desks because of his religion, and when we’d leave for the long holiday weekend which included Christmas, all we could say was “Have a nice holiday.” (We were instructed by our supervisors to ensure we didn’t offend him.)

So, when I hear Fox News and right-wingers and born-agains complaining about red cups and the War on Christmas, I always remember my old conservative boss whom I had no choice but to comply with. Luckily, I was a big liberal then and had no problem respecting his wishes and his religious freedom, while my co-workers complained in the breakroom.

Funny how the state Republican party and the big right-wing consultants who used his service never complained about him, but cause a huge ruckus about the “war” on Christmas that us lib’ruls are supposedly waging. And don’t get me started on the idiotic “politically incorrect” signage that some businesses put up, as if it makes them any more Christian or patriotic than anyone else.

Finding no credible brown face from South Texas or the RGV to defend him, it looks like Greg Abbott settled for a defense from the Little Brown One, AKA “Pé” (en la frente). And it was a pretty weak defense since the people of South Texas are still waiting for an apology from Abbott.

Pé Bush isn’t doing himself any favors defending a condescending gringo non-Latino elected official. I mean, c’mon, doesn’t Pé know that those of us who grew up in South Texas had to deal with condescension and general meanness from right-wing bigots? One would figure he would have learned this at his private school in Florida growing up.

Anyway, South Texas awaits a sincere apology from Abbott for “third world,” as well as for defending K-12 funding cuts, trying to block health care for those who can’t afford it, etc. There’s a long list of stuff for which he owes South Texas an apology.

Contaminated Soil and METRO

This made the news earlier this week (pay wall) and I must say it is quite concerning. The community fought a plan to build an overpass for the East End rail line and negotiations ended up with agreement for an underpass so the rail would cross some freight rail lines. Building an underpass would ensure the area wasn’t divided by a huge wall of an overpass. It was even an issue CM Robert Gallegos ran on in his race for District I as he was among the community activists who supported an underpass.

Well, now, it was revealed that there is a nice-sized area contaminated with gasoline and even some cancer-causing pollutants which leaked from some of the freight rail tanks. According to consultants, if they don’t dig the underpass, then there is no need to clean the site. And that’s when my alarm went off, since I grew up in a town with an area close to schools and housing projects that was polluted so bad it became a Superfund site back in the 80s. Since 1994, according to the article, the contaminated area in the East End seems to have grown–unless they didn’t measure right the first time; they weren’t clear.

The METRO folks are correct, it takes years to mitigate–it was in the mid-90s when the mitigation in my hometown was considered a success to the Feds. But to just leave it there? One way or another, the soil needs to be dug up and removed from the area before anything is built. But it does beg numerous more questions about contamination in the East End, particularly in areas around freight rail lines. I hope we hear more about this soon because I find the solution of simply not digging a bit hard to believe.

Posted onFebruary 7, 2013|Comments Off on Rubio Will Deliver Response to the 29%

The media is making a lot of pedo about Marco Rubio delivering the right-wing response to President Obama’s State of the Union. Oh, but the media goes crazy over Rubio’s Español response.

If all he intends to do is read a direct translation of the English version, then, all he’s doing is talking to the 29% of Latinos who voted for the Republicans in 2012. And chances are that is exactly what will happen given his lack of support for a path to citizenship without the enforcement trigger.

No, instead of a legislative speech, chances are that in his Español speech he will deliver the same old right-wing talking points, “Latinos are just like the Republicans” and “Latinos are conservative.”

Yeah, tell that to the 71% who voted for President Obama. When it comes to most, if not all, issues (education, jobs/economy, health care, immigration), Latinos side with Democrats. On the hottest–abortion and marriage equality–Latinos are on the progressive side of 50/50, and that’s getting better, too.

Frankly, he has another option of telling some truths about Republicans and their racist vitriol on immigration in Spanish. Or how Republicans want to put our abuelitos and abuelitas on the street by threatening Social Security and Medicare and other benefits they have invested in as taxpayers. But does he have the cojones? Of course, without supporting policies that Latinos support, Rubio is left serving as what we all know he is for the Republicans–window dressing, lipstick on an elephant, etc.

No, Latinos will not be fooled.

Not that President Obama is doing a great job of keeping us happy. It seems he is putting more political capital into the gun debate than into CIR, and he is continuing his deportation scheme, thus, separating families and wasting local law enforcement resources. Still, Rubio and his ilk will only say something like, “Obama didn’t do anything in his first term.” And Rubio will conveniently leave out that 100% of Republicans voted against the DREAM Act in 2010.

Ultimately, Latinos will side with the ones that are barely hanging on and giving the image that they are doing something, and in this case, it is not Marco Rubio and the GOP. It won’t matter what Rubio says.

I’m looking forward to the talking heads this weekend to see how they over-analyze Marco Rubio and the Latino Republican effort. I bet they leave out facts and issues and instead promote the window dressing that votes against Latino interests.